IPFW+Dummynet Capability

[Julian Elischer]

Kazi A. Sharif wrote:
> Hello Guys,
> I was planning to install a heavy duty bandwidth manager for my ISP. I 
> went through some documentation and installed IPFW and Dummynet in 
> FreeBSD 7.0. Before I spent so much time on this I need to know the 
> limitations that are already noticed:
> 1. If we compare IPFW+Dummynet with Allot or Emerging Technologies 
> Bandwidth manager, how efficient is the IPFW+Dummynet?


probably not as efficient..

> 2. Is it possible to control/throttle 800/900Mbps bandwidth using 
> recommended hardware?

It'll be pushing hard to do that.

> 3. Can I shape bandwidth for 3000 to 5000 clients with Dummynet where 
> concurrent connectivity would be 2000 to 3000?

"maybe"

> 4. If I can serve 5000 users then what would be the performance 
> decreasing ratio?

no idea
> 5. If I can not use Dummynet for my requirement then what are the 
> recommendations?


a dedicated load controlling device.

You are going to have to do significant tuning with FreeBSD to be able
to do this, and if you do not want to become a guru in ipfw and 
network processing in the BSD kernel then it is a much better use
of your time to research some dedicated hardware.

If my boss told me I had to do this, I'd say, "I don't know if it's 
possible with FreeBSD.. I'll need to do some testing"
and if it was close I'd consider doing it because I have
confidencein my knowledge of the networking code, that I cold probably
hack the kernel enough to give me a specdial purpose kernel that could
do it, but  if it wasn't close I wouldn't bother.

My suspicion is that it won't be "close" at this time, but the only 
thing you can try is to simulate it.


> Thanks in advance.
> Sharif
> 
> 
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